Compassion

A few weeks ago we were studying a lesson on compassion at church. I had been thinking a lot about compassion since then. Some lessons only become real when we experience them in a personal way, though.

It was the last day of summer it was a beautiful day. The temperature was a rare 75 degrees in August in Tennessee. The sky was blue, and our dog, Sammy, just had to dig his way out of our yard to go explore the world. He broke through the backyard fence, and since there was no one at home we didn’t even realize he was gone until my husband came home for lunch that day. He looked for him in our neighborhood, but to no avail.

The call came at about 4 pm. A kind woman found Sammy on the road near our home and called to let me know he was gone. My heart was broken, of course. How would I tell my children? In the midst of my despair, though, a thought came to me that I just couldn’t seem to move past: This woman was a living, breathing example of compassion.

“This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. “ (I John 3:11, 16, 17 NIV)

This woman saw a need and took pity on me. She didn’t just walk past and say, “Someone really should do something about that.” She stopped what she was doing, took the collar off of a dead dog, and made a difficult phone call to a stranger. Then she pulled our beloved Sammy out of the road to the lawn and laid the collar next to him. This woman didn’t love with words or her tongue. She loved with actions and in truth. And the reality that kept coming back to me was, “I would never have done that.” Compassion became real for me that day. And I will never forget the lesson.